John McPartland, the new president of the transit agency’s elected board of directors, has made it his mission to extend BART to this East Bay suburb of 80,000, which is home to Lawrence Livermore National Laboratories. ...

“It’s just not the best use of a billion and a half dollars, especially with our capital needs,” said Mr. Radulovich. “Some of it’ll end up coming out of funds that otherwise would have gone to the maintenance and rehab, system capacity, seismic safety and car replacement.”

Tom Radulovich is BART's Vice President.

But supporters from Livermore say that BART owes them an extension, because they have been paying taxes to support the agency since its inception.

However, the former mayor of Dublin, CA, Linda Jeffery Sailors, successfully got BART to change its Livermore-extension plans from a 11-mi, $3.8-billion, downtown-Livermore one to a 5-mi, $1.2-billion, I-580-only one with a station in west Livermore, likely at I-580 and Isabel Ave. But it could still be extended further eastward later on.

If BART can find the funds to extend its lines to San Jose, a city that contributes nothing to BART, surely it can find funds to extend its lines to Livermore, which has been providing funds to BART for decades.If not, then BART should cancel the unsubsidized rail line to San Jose.

The total capital cost of the BART Silicon Valley Berryessa Extension is estimated at approximately $2.3 billion. Funding for this project will come through multiple revenue streams including: the 2000 Measure A, half-cent sales tax and other local sources would contribute 51%, the State of California and its Traffic Congestion Relief Program (TCRP) would contribute 10%, and federal grants including the New Starts program would provide the remaining 39% of the funding.

BART between East D/P and West Livermore would be about 6 min. To central Livermore would be about 12 min by local bus and 5 min more to my former home. So it's a time saving of 27 minutes of bus riding, though BART and transfer time will reduce the saving to about 16 min.

That page shows what they've decided on: an extension in I-580 from East Dublin/Pleasanton to Isabel Ave. It also shows some possible express-bus routes, to Las Positas College, a possible park-and-ride lot at I-580 and Greenville Rd., and the Vasco Rd. ACE station.

The $7.8 billion Alameda County transportation tax, Measure BB, was closer but appeared headed towardthe needed two-thirds approval. The 30-year tax measure, nearly identical to one that narrowly failed in 2012, would extend an existing half-cent sales tax and tack on another half cent. With 53 percent of precincts reporting, the measure led 69.06 percent to 30.94 percent.

Measure BB would devote most of its money — nearly $5 billion — to transit, bicycle and pedestrian improvements, including $400 million toward a Livermore BART extension and $1.5 billion to boost AC Transit service. Roughly $3 billion would go to streets and highways — mostly for maintenance but also for new interchanges on Interstate 80 and carpool lanes on Interstate 680.

Looks like the Livermore extension may be going ahead, since it looks like it will be getting local funding.

The council supported proposed legislation, Assembly Bill 758, introduced by Assemblywoman Catharine Baker (R- San Ramon) and Assemblywoman Susan Eggman (D-Stockton), to create a new rail authority for the BART-to-Livermore project. The Tri Valley-San Joaquin Valley Regional Rail Authority would plan a regional rail connection between BART, Altamont Corridor Express (ACE) in the Tri-Valley, or a new regional connection between the valley and San Joaquin County, according to a city report.

The bill recommends transferring any funds already dedicated to the Livermore project to the new panel. The bill also states that BART would assume ownership and operations once the extension is built.

This kind of deal is not unprecedented. There is a similar sort of agency that has been building the Los Angeles Gold Line from downtown LA to Pasadena, Azusa, and Montclair (Construction Authority | Foothill Gold Line).

Thing is - Livermore wants everyone to build them a parking lot shuttle closer than the current parking lot shuttle. They have specifically opposed any design for BART to Livermore that might ever be anything more than a staggeringly expensive parking lot shuttle by going downtown, in classic, elitist style in fear of the 'crime train'.

No one should give them this as long as they insist that rapid transit can only be something to save them on parking.

The BART Board of Directors certified the BART to Livermore Final Environmental Impact Report (FEIR) tonight, May 24, 2018, but declined to take a position on any of the alternatives described in the FEIR.

The board had been split on whether to construct the proposed $1.6 billion extension, which wold have added 5.5 miles to the blue from the Dublin/Pleasanton station to a new station in the Interstate 580 median at Isabel Avenue. But with a funding shortfall of more than $1 billion, several other directors favored a less costly $380 million light-rail-like bus system.

acetobart | PROJECT CONCEPT The line will start at the East Dublin/Pleasanton station and go east in I-580, stopping at Isabel Ave. in west Livermore and Greenville Rd. in east Livermore. At the latter station, it will meet the Altamont Commuter Express line on the UP's ex-WP line (Western Pacific). It will continue eastward in the now-abandoned ex-SP right of way, stopping in Tracy and maybe also Stockton.

It will have "EMU/DMU" railcars, and also

This vital rail connection provides a highly economic way to close a significant passenger rail gap, but in addition, it will improve the overall mobility in this key freight movement corridor between the San Joaquin Valley and the Port of Oakland.

East of Livermore, will the ACE trains be rerouted from the ex-WP to this rebuilt right of way?

BART to Livermore struck me as a distilled essence of everything-wrong with Bay Area Transportation, ten-figure sums to extend the parking lot shuttle a few a few miles to a site that doesn't connect with any existing transit so that they can shove the TOD over by the freeway because Livermore residents have unreasonable notions about just how much they pay for BART and it being some sort of "crime train" that they both want to be near them, but not actually near enough to them for anyone but themselves.